The Truman Show And The Awakening Of Consciousness
The 1998 Truman Show by director Peter Weir is celebrating its 20th birthday this year. This film is still very valuable from an educational point of view, as it conveys philosophical and psychological topics. By using communication media and symbols, this movie strip reflects in a very clear way a process as complex as awakening consciousness.
Knowledge and awareness: woven from the same thread
To understand what awareness awakening is, we must first grasp the difference between awareness and awareness. According to the Duden, knowledge is “the insight gained through mental processing of impressions and experiences” . Consciousness, on the other hand, is “the totality of all those psychic processes through which a person becomes aware of the outside world and of himself” . Therefore, the awakening of consciousness takes place when the person is not only aware of himself, but also that there is something or someone who is connected to him.
We can also understand this as becoming aware of transcendence. At that moment a spark ignites in us that makes us doubt everything that we have been told. And at this point we can be satisfied with what we know or overcome our fears and insecurities in order to get out of the “cave”.
The allegory of the cave
The allegory of the cave was created by the Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 AD) to symbolize human knowledge. According to the allegory of the cave, man is like a prisoner in a cave and what he knows is only a reflection or the shadow of reality. The real is outside the cave, which is difficult to understand when we have never left it and we are used to seeing the shadows and interpreting them. In this sense we do not know the existence of the real; it scares us.
What is our cave? Our family or the environment in which we grew up. It is normal that a number of values have been imprinted on us since childhood, ranging from religious to political values. When we are born in a society, we grow up with different traditions that ultimately give us an identity. That is why many people are afraid of something new: They are afraid of losing this identity.
As human beings in search of security, we tend, in some ways, to adopt familiar habits that the people we love have. Thus neither society nor our family teach us to “look outside”. Critical thinking is not encouraged. Few children have an environment that teaches them to analyze, compare, form their own opinions and be aware of themselves.
The awakening of consciousness at Truman
The protagonist of this film, Truman, is a man who couldn’t decide anything in his life. He’s been the main character on a television show since he was born and all the decisions he makes – having a girlfriend, getting married, buying a house, working, etc. – are not made by him, but by the show’s producers. They compare him to a god.
Truman lives under a huge dome in a specially built small town, is happy and blind to everything. Even if he suspects something or has doubts, he cannot leave this world because he is dominated by fears and insecurities instilled in him in childhood, such as his fear of the sea and the trauma associated with his father. But there comes a time when he can no longer ignore his doubts because his world is no longer the same as it was before.
In truth, we are all Truman. The only way we can be authentic is for this spark, this awakening of consciousness, to arise within us. And only our will helps us to overcome the fear that can arise in the face of the scenario that awaits us.
Only those who think are really free
When this awakening of consciousness takes place within us, it gives us energy and we are determined to get out of our comfort zone and surroundings, fueled by the feeling that we see things more clearly when we distance ourselves. We then ask ourselves: What do I want to do with my life? Do my beliefs still fulfill me? What do I believe in and what do I build on? What is my reality
Our answers should be more important to us than the opinions of others, as they are perfectly tailored to us and not to others. We are quick to think that we are not free because we all have responsibilities, for our families, for our studies or for our work. But the truth is that we are only really free when we think. We can think of something completely freely and imagine what we want, just as we can freely decide in the next step. Truman also has the opportunity to get to know reality.
If we are satisfied with what we have always had and what we have been taught, we prevent development. However, when we conquer the fear of the unknown and go in search of ourselves, we embark on a path in which we acquire our own principles, values and beliefs that are healthier, more authentic and correspond to our true being. In short, if we conquer ourselves, we will be freer, and there are always two ingredients necessary for this: an awakening and the power to overcome.
“There is no limit, no lock and also no bolt that you can impose on the freedom of my spirit.”
Virginia Woolf
